WPP launches global digital production initiative

WPP Digital is launching a new platform, Deliver, which the company says will provide digital production to clients in a more cost-effective manner and with greater consistency on a global scale.

Neil Prescott, formerly EVP and global head of technology enablement at Digitas, will join WPP as the CEO of Deliver.

“Clients expect the execution of campaigns to happen globally,” Prescott said. “They want a consistent branding around the world, understanding that things need to be tweaked by geographic region.”

Deliver will help accomplish this with a worldwide set of digital production capabilities that will be able to apply best practices on a global basis, Prescott explained.

Other factors are driving this development as well. While clients continue to spend more digitally, “clients are looking for cost reductions in digital products at the same time that the expectation for quality continues to go up,” Prescott said.

Deliver will distribute work among the group's stable of digital agencies, leveraging existing production capabilities in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and South America for clients around the world.

WPP currently has more than 700 professionals working in the area of digital production in these markets. While much of their business is currently offshore work, Deliver will give them access to a broader range of clients and agencies inside WPP. The agencies involved with Deliver include Russia's Actis Systems; China's Agenda; South Africa's Aqua; Studiocom, through its Offshore Guys subsidiary in Colombia; and Wunderman's Zazz, based in Seattle.